1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to foods which contain vanillylamine or a vanillylamide (hereinafter collectively called vanillylamine derivatives) and therefore are effective in reducing or in preventing increased body fat.
2. Description of the Background
Obesity, which is caused by excessively high caloric intake and the resulting accumulation of surplus fat often leads to various types of geriatric diseases. Furthermore, the accumulation of body fat endangers the health of those people who are free to take in much fat and carbohydrate and whose physical constitution or conditions in daily living are not in favor of the metabolism of these nutrients. Dieting or sitotherapy is now a matter of major concern to patients who suffer from obesity-caused diseases and also to healthy people who need to control their weight.
Dieting or sitotherapy often requires limitations on the intake of fat and carbohydrate, and it can also restrict the total number of meals consumed as well as the caloric intake, as may be seen from the examples shown later. Thus, dieting is not always successful in achieving the desired objectives, because it requires the utmost in patience on the part of the dieter. Hence, a significant number of dieters fail to persist through their diets.
There has been a great demand for foods which will help reduce the amount of body fat without limiting the kinds and quantities of food consumed, and which do not lead the dieter to resort to the taking of medicines. Such foods, if available, would also be of great benefit to healthy people who wish to reduce surplus fat and maintain a normal body weight.
The means for reducing body fat and for preventing its accumulation may be classified into two types: (1) the reduction of caloric intake which is exemplified by the use of sweeteners of high sweetness and the intake of unmetabolizable foods such as konjak (glucomannan) jelly, and by the administration of anorexigenic agents; and (2) the promotion of fat metabolism, exemplified by physical methods such as gymnastic exercises and massages, and by the intake of foods or medicines that accelerate fat metabolism. A variety of medicines that promote the metabolism of body fat are known and they include lipid metabolism improvers such as nicotinic acid, dl-.alpha.-tocopherol, oxandrolone and clofibrate. On the other hand, foods having such a metabolic activity are very few. Some such health foods proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 122,765 (1982) contain, as essential ingredients, the concentrate of saponin components extracted from a cucurbitaceous plant.
With respect to vanillylamine derivatives, capsaicin, which is a vanillylamide derived from a carboxylic acid of 10 carbon atoms, which is a typical pungent principle, is known to have anti-oxidant action [Japanese Patent Publication No. 40,876 (1976); Oil Chemistry, 29, No. 6, 31-34 (1980)]. However no other utility for the compounds of this family of compounds has yet been reported. A need therefore continues to exist for foods which promote the metabolism of fat.